On the train with Alan Moore
James Graham wants to know what three questions I’d ask were I ever to find myself on a train sitting opposite the great Alan Moore…
1. You’re a magician (in the traditional sense of the word). Is there anything you could do or perform here and now to persuade a sceptic and athiest such as myself?
2. The superhero genre is still the staple of the comic book industry and now of the movie industry. This is despite stories involving indestructible cash cows and properties such as Batman and Superman being inherently free of jeopardy and suspense. Is this comforting safety the reason for their attraction or is it something else?
3. There must be a lot of comic writers out there who look at your work and say ‘I wish I’d written that’. Is there anything out there by other writers that you feel envious of?
As a self-appointed meme-slayer, I don’t like passing memes on, but if Jim Bliss and Rochenko fancied a go…
Posted on August 7th, 2008 at 10:55am under Culture, media and sport
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[...] Alan Moore on a Train Meme is finally getting some results, which are proving interesting. Meanwhile, I finally got around to looking up the Alan [...]
I before E except after C, though not always in weird atheist societies.
Philip’s latest blog post… News 2012
Your correction is gratefully recieved.
I have actually found myself chatting to Alan Moore, and promptly realised I had next to nothing to say to him despite a lifetime of fandom… Still less intimidating that the time a friend called me into the back room of his bookshop for a cuppa, then gesticulated towards a figure in the corner and asked, “Have you met James Ellroy?”
Funny thing about Moore and magic – as he said when he was interviewed on Stu Lee’s ‘Don’t Get Me Started’ on religion, he basically believes that it’s all good fun as long as you realise it’s all in your mind. He’s a ‘magician’ in the sense that we’ve got an inbuilt connection to occult ceremony and mysticism. Not that you can actually cast a spell to turn someone into a newt, say.
Seems he’s bacially just into the occult for the fun of it.
(First-time commenter, so a little bit of obligatory suction – Chicken Yoghurt is ace).
[...] Oh go on then, Justin. [...]
Done and done.
Rochenko’s latest blog post… Asking Alan
Well, when I met Pat Mills I had nothing worthwhile to say. When I met Alan Grant I had nothing worthwhile to say. I think I’d pretend that I didn’t know who Alan Moore was and chat about the weather to save myself the awkwardness.
Actually, allow me to correct myself. After an short chat about the weather and a long silence, I would, just as the train was pulling into Northampton, ask Alan what he thought of the fact that his greatest superhero book was being turned into a film by a director who has made two deeply reactionary films, the second of which cannot be described without using the word ‘fascist’.